Essence of Homeopathic Materia Medica

Overview

After George Vithoulkas, one of the 20th century's premier homeopaths, taught in the USA during the 1970's his class notes were widely distributed (against his wishes).

These were originally named "The Stolen Essences". This is the first official publication, edited and corrected by Vithoulkas himself.

Details

Essences of Materia Medica, by George Vithoulkas, was published in 1988.

53 remedies described by one of the 20th century's premier homeopaths. After George Vithoulkas taught in the USA during the 1970's his class notes were widely distributed (against his wishes). These were originally named "The Stolen Essences".

This is the first official publication having been edited and corrected by Vithoulkas himself. Vithoulkas has drawn heavily on his clinical experience as well as Kent's Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica.

These unique remedy descriptions are the source for some of the commonly accepted 'essences'-the cowardice of Lycopodium, the diffusion of Phosphorous, etc.

George Vithoulkas

(1932 - )

George Vithoulkas was born in Athens, Greece in 1932. He started studying homeopathy in South Africa in 1960. He continued in India at different homeopathic colleges, receiving a diploma from the Indian Institute of Homeopathy in 1966.

Returning to Greece the following year, Vithoulkas started practicing homeopathy and teaching it to a small group of Greek medical doctors.

The therapeutic success of these first doctors so attracted the attention of others that the Athenian School of Homeopathic Medicine was established in 1970. The school, since re-named the Center of Homeopathic Medicine, is devoted exclusively to the teaching of MDs.

George Vithoulkas started teaching classical homeopathy in 1967. In 1971 the first Greek Homeopathic Society was established and a year later Vithoulkas started the Greek journal, Homeopathic Medicine.

In 1976, he organized the first International Homeopathic Seminars in Greece. Since then, international seminars have been held every year, attended by health professionals from all over the world.

In 1994, Vithoulkas opened the International Academy for Classical Homeopathy on the Greek island of Alonissos, its purpose being to provide post-graduate training for health practitioners from all over the world.

Currently, as the Director of the Athens Center, Vithoulkas heads a team of 30 doctors who practice homeopathy while they study under his supervision. He has established homeopathy in Greece as a science respected by the medical profession, and has also made his country one of the leading centers for homeopathy in the western world.

Vithoulkas' books, Homeopathy: Medicine of the New Man (Arco, New York, 1979), written for lay people, and The Science of Homeopathy (Grove Press, New York, 1980), for health professionals, have been translated into twenty languages and have had a profound influence upon the acceptance and practice of homeopathy worldwide.

His book, A New Model for Health and Disease, published in German and English in 1991, makes a fundamental critique of conventional allopathic medicine and sets out a new paradigm for the science of medicine.

He has been an international teacher of classical homeopathy for 20 years. In the year 1996, he was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize for his work in the field of Classical Homeopathy.

From 1987-1991, in co-operation with the University of Namur in Belgium, he worked on creating and programming a highly sophisticated computer system, the V.E.S. (Vithoulkas Expert System) developed for the RADAR computer program. The VES has sold over 1,000 copies and has brought classical homeopathy within the reach of practitioners worldwide. Mr. Vithoulkas has also produced a series of video courses made from his lectures.

George Vithoulkas' overall vision is the establishment of homeopathy on a worldwide basis. A major goal in this vision is the foundation of homeopathic medical colleges in the USA and Europe where homeopathy can be taught at the highest level. Towards this end, a New York branch of the International Academy of Homeopathy has been established, classicalhomeopathy.com

At present Mr. Vithoulkas is writing a new homeopathic Materia Medica Viva, in 16 volumes, including contemporary knowledge and his own experience from the more than 150,000 cases treated at the Center in Athens. At present six volumes have been published.

George Vithoulkas continues to teach, both in Greece and internationally. As the practice of homeopathy becomes more widespread in many countries, Mr. Vithoulkas is seen to have made a major contribution to its establishment as a science that can substantially benefit human health and welfare.

Major Publications:

Homeopathy - Medicine Of The New Man1970

Homeopathy - Medicine For The New MilleniumPublished in May 2000This is a new, expanded version of Medicine of the New Man

Heritage

In the late 1970s George Vithoulkas taught a number of seminars in the USA. After the first seminar at Esalen in 1979, Bill Gray transcribed George's class notes and distributed them to class members.

The following year, those who took the course received the "essence" class notes from the year before. Those who took the class the third year received the notes from the second year as well.

The attendees were asked to sign an agreement promising not to copy or distribute the material. It was very clear that Vithoulkas felt that these were not ready for publication and that he didn't want them to be distributed.

By the fourth year of the course someone (who shall remain nameless) receiving the notes copied them and distributed them to friends. These became the "Stolen Essences."

In 1988, the "essences" were finally edited by Vithoulkas, and given to Jain to publish. They are, by agreement, not available for sale in the USA.

Julian Winston writes:
I remember seeing a copy of the "class notes" that belonged to Dr. Karl Robinson, one of those attending the first Esalen course.

They were, obviously, unfinished ideas. Sentences trailing off, and uncompleted thoughts. It looked as if they had been typed on several different machines (which they were!) and not well photocopied.